Re: Formal semantics of language semantics

"Nick Maclaren" <nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk>
13 Oct 2002 15:52:28 -0400

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[2 earlier articles]
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) (2002-09-29)
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics i.dittmer@fh-osnabrueck.de (Ingo Dittmer) (2002-09-29)
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics joachim_d@gmx.de (Joachim Durchholz) (2002-09-29)
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics stephen@dino.dnsalias.com (Stephen J. Bevan) (2002-09-29)
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics lex@cc.gatech.edu (Lex Spoon) (2002-09-29)
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics whopkins@alpha2.csd.uwm.edu (Mark) (2002-09-29)
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) (2002-10-13)
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics haberg@matematik.su.se (Hans Aberg) (2002-10-13)
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics scgupta@solomons.cs.uwm.edu (Satish C. Gupta) (2002-10-13)
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics lex@cc.gatech.edu (Lex Spoon) (2002-10-13)
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics anw@merlot.uucp (Dr A. N. Walker) (2002-10-18)
Re: Formal semantics of language semantics whopkins@alpha2.csd.uwm.edu (Mark) (2002-10-18)
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From: "Nick Maclaren" <nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 13 Oct 2002 15:52:28 -0400
Organization: University of Cambridge, England
References: 02-09-149 02-09-162
Keywords: semantics
Posted-Date: 13 Oct 2002 15:52:28 EDT

Ingo Dittmer <i.dittmer@fh-osnabrueck.de> wrote:
>Joe Hendrix schrieb:
>
>> Are there any notations commonly used to define the semantics of a
>> programming language? (Similar to how BNF defines the syntax).
>
>Many. All two-level-grammars (van-Wijngarden, affix, extended affix
>(also used to describe whole compilers formally), attribute (also for
>compilers),...), denotational semantics, fixpoint semantics, predicate
>semantics, Wiener definition method (used for PL/I), and so on and so
>on...
>
>The first developments have been in the 60th, and there are a lot of
>fine books.


Hang on. The two-level grammars that I know of DON'T handle the
semantics, but extend the syntax to things like the type rules. That
was most definitely so for the van Wijngarden grammar used in Algol
68, for example. The semantics of that were most definitely described
using hand-waving, though that aspect was no than Fortran.


My copy of the Revised Report is at work, and I can't remember if
Algol 68 even specified the rules for array bounds etc. using the
two-level grammar, but my recollection is that it didn't.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
Email: nmm1@cam.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679


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